The use of initial seals to determine the initial inviolability of the contents of bottles or the like is a common practice. It is well known that with bottled and packed drinks, there is an unfortunately all too common risk of fraudulent and improper tampering by third parties between the manufacturer's sealing of the product and before the product reaches the consumer. It is for this specific reason that the tamper proof systems which ensure and guarantee inviolability against such tampering form a known and important aspect of the field of supplying bottled/packed drinks.
Among such systems, it is worth mentioning those which make it possible to determine, in a simple and direct way, whether or not the interior of the bottle or container has been tampered with during the transport and distribution of the product.
One known system comprises sealable bottle tops which make it possible to determine by means of direct visual observation whether or not the bottle or container has been opened since it left the factory.
Various types of bottle sealing tops are currently known, most of them of the type which comprise an opening tab. The tabs are normally defined by perforated lines which make it easier to tear and separate the disposable cap, defining the top, from the skirt thereof which may or may not remain fixed to the neck of the bottle once the top has been unsealed.
These types of tops suffer from known drawbacks, among which it is worth mentioning the following:
The perforated lines are peripheral, which means opening the top is normally an awkward task. PA1 It is also usual for these tops to be provided with a single tab, with the attendant drawback that since it is possible for the tab to break mainly due to the weakness of the material of which they are normally made, it can become even more difficult to open the top after breakage of the tab. PA1 Embodiments of sealable tops with tearable tabs that are separate from the tops may suffer the accidental tearing of the tabs during the normal handling of the bottles and/or containers, giving rise to losses in the sales of the bottled or packed product. PA1 The environmental problem regarding the pollution created by discarding product is also a factor which must be considered, since the product comprises at least two disposable parts, the cap and the tab. PA1 Finally, it is worth mentioning that tops currently come in various sizes as a result of the large variety of embodiments of stoppers (alternatively referred to as bottle closing members or caps), making them more expensive and more difficult to produce. This is a common practice among drink manufacturers and bottlers since the exterior of the bottles and/or containers often carry the identification of the manufacturer.